William mcmahon



' (No Model.)

W MOMAHON DUMBING OAR OPERATING-MECHANISM. N 0. 596,30 2.

Patented Dec. 28,1897.

J MVENTOR WITNESSES:

- BY .1"! l ATTORNEYS Enron.

WILLIAM MCMAHON, 0E RAHWAY, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO GEORGE n. DUNHAM, on NEW YORK, N. Y.

DUMPlNG-CAR-OPERATING MECHANISM.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 596,302, dated December 28, 1897. Application filed May 7, 1897- Serial No. 635,462. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I,WILLIAM MoMAHoN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Rahway, in the county of.Union and State of New Jersey, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Dumping-Oar-Operating Mechanism, of which the following is a specification.

Mechanism for operating the hopper-gates of dumping-cars should be characterized by extreme simplicity and durability, should be easily operated for opening the gates, and capable of being securely locked when the gates are closed.

The object of my present inventionis to provide a dumping-car-operating mechanism which will secure these results.

In the accompanying drawings, Figure l is a side elevation of a car embodying my invention partly broken away for clearness of illustration; and Fig. 2 is a bottom plan view of one of the hoppers, the gate being closed.

A is the car-body, of usual construction. It is provided with one or more hoppers in its bottom, two hoppers B B being preferably employed, as shown, discharging toward each other and lengthwise of the car toward its center. These hoppers are provided with side walls E E, which depend within the side sills of the car, and With inclined bottoms G O, extending lengthwise of the car from near its ends downwardly and inwardly toward the center of the car and discharging through gates D D, which are hinged at their upper ends at m and are disposed in a substantially vertical position, so as to sustain very little of the load, and for this reason and because such gates are not moved in either direction far from a vertical line the gates can be readily unlocked and opened and again closed and locked without the expenditure of much force. Beneath the inclined bottom of each hopper is located a transverse shaft F, supported well below the sills of the car by hangers G, which may be attached to the hopper-bottom wholly or in part or wholly from the car-sills. On each end of the shaft F is secured a crank-arm H, to which is connected a link I, extending to the lower end of the gate D or D and pivotally secured to its side edge. The crankarms H and links I are located beneath the side sills of the car and between lines dropped vertically from the outside faces of such sills, and hence the gate-operating mechanism is protected by the sides of the car-body. This makes necessary the hanging of the transverse shaft F far enough below the side sills to permit the movement of the crank-arms to the locking position without striking the sills of the car. One end of the shaft F extends beyond the hanger and is squared, as shown, to

receive a wrench or lever-key for turning the shaft. When the gate is open, as seen at the left in Fig. 1, the crank-arms Hare in a horizontal position, turned toward the gate. To close the gate, the shaft F is turned so as to throw the crank-arms radially past a line drawn vertically through the shaft until the links I rest on the shaft F, as seen at the right in Fig. 1, when further movement in that direction is prevented and the gate is closed against the bottom and sides of the hopper. To relieve the crank-pins of strain in maintaining the closed position of the gate, I prefer to provide the links I with projecting shoulders J, which engage the shaft F when the links rest upon the shaft. To look the gate in its closed position, I provide an exceedingly simple and effective device. This consists of a dog K for each link, pivoted to the hopper or other part of the car and hanging by its own weight above the end of the link when the link rests on the crank-shaft and preventing the link from rising from the shaft. Before turning the crank-shaft to open the gate the dogs K are thrown upwardly out of the way of the links and rest on pins L. They are thrown downwardly again when the gate is closed, or if hanging downwardly when the closing movement is effected they will be pushed out of the way by the ends of the links and will drop by their own weight over the ends of the links as such links come to rest on the crank-shaft.

\Vhat I claim is 1. In a dumpin gear, the combination with a hopper closed bya vertically-disposed hinged gate, of a transverse shaft havinga crank-arm thereon, a link connecting the crank-arm and gate, and a shoulder on said link,the parts being constructed and arranged so that the gate is closed by throwing the link over the crankshaft, whereby the said link is made to appreach the crank-arm in a nearly parallel position automatically to engage the shoulder with the shaft, substantially as set forth.

2. In a dumping-car,the combination with a hopper closed by a vertically-disposed hinged gate, of a transverse shaft having a crank-arm thereon, a link connecting the crank-arn1 and gate, a shoulder on said link, said parts being constructed and arranged so that the gate is closed by throwing the link over the crankshaft, whereby the said link is made to ap' proach the crank-arm in a nearly parallel posi tion automatically to engage the shoulder with the shaft, and a dog pivoted over the end of the link and hanging by its weight in position to lock the link against return movement, substantially as set forth.

3. I11 a dun1ping-car,the combination with a hopper closed by a vertically-disposed hinged gate, of a shaft having crank-arms at its ends, linksv connecting the crank arms and gate, said cranks and links being constructed and arranged so that the gate is closed by throwing'the links over the crank-shaft, whereby the said links are made to approach the crankarms in a nearly parallel position automatically to engage the links with the shaft, and dogs pivoted over the ends of the links and hanging by their own weight in position to lock the links against movement in the return direction, substantially as set forth.

t. In a dumpingcanthe combination with a hopper closed by avertically-disposed hinged gate, of a shaft having crank-arms at its ends, links connecting the crank-arms and the gate, shoulders on said links, said cranks and links being constructed and arranged so that the gate is closed by throwing the links over the crank-shaft, whereby the said links are made to approach the crank-arms in a nearly parallel position automatically to engage the shoulders with the shaft, and dogs pivoted over the ends of the links and hanging by their own weight so as to lock the links in their position of rest on the crank-shaft, substantially as set forth.

5. In a dumping-car,the combination with a hopper closed by a vertically-disposed hinged gate, of a transverse shaft supported in hangers beneath the hopper, crank-arms on the ends of said shaft beneath the side sills of the car, links connecting the crank-arms and gate, shoulders on said links, said cranks and links being constructed and arranged so that the gate is closed by throwing the links over the crank-shaft, whereby the said links are made to approach the crank-arms in a nearly parallel position automatically to engage the shoulders with the shaft, and pivoted dogs lockin g the links on the crank-shaft, substantially as set forth.

This specification signed and witnessed this 28th day of April, 1897.

WM. MoMAIION. Witnesses EUGENE CONRAN, JNo. R. TAYLOR. 

